Police to Compensate Yitzhar Family for Harassment Campaign

Every night, the police conducted an illegal inspection at the home of a family in Yitzhar, in Samaria, and later kept their son, a minor, in false detention, as part of a campaign of harassment for which police must compensates the family.

The lawsuit, conducted by the Honenu legal aid society, charged that “Police negligence was deliberate or borderline deliberate.” Honenu attorney Menashe Yado insisted “this was no mishap.” The outcome of the lawsuit was a compromise according to which police will pay the family the shekel equivalent of $2,200.

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The background to the lawsuit was an administrative restraining order against the family’s minor son, confining him to house arrest for a few months in his parents’ home. The family petitioned the Military Court of Appeals, which reduced the confinement period by three months.

However, police officers continued to visit the family’s home every night, ostensibly to check on the minor well after the order against him had expired according to the military court’s ruling. The family’s appeals to the Israel Police and the Civil Administration did not help, and cops continued to show up at their home every single night.

According to the lawsuit, the cops banged on the front door, waking up small children and interfering with family privacy – this despite the fact that one of the officers had been well aware of order’s expiration.

One time, the boy police were harassing spent Rosh Hashanah and following Shabbat on a hilltop near his settlement. Police arrived on the hill, and detained the boy for violating his house arrest order. He tried to explain that order had long since expired, but to no avail. The officers forced him into their vehicle and took him to the police station on Shabbat. An hour and a half later, the policemen realized that their detainee had spoken the truth and released him. But the boy did not want to ride in a police car on Shabbat, and had to walk for about an hour and a half until he reached the hill.

Attorney Yado, who represented the family, said the state misrepresented the entire affair as a “glitch,” when, clearly, behind it were individuals who knew or should have known that the court order had expired, but would not stop harassing the minor and his family, eventually even arresting him.

“Let us hope that the acceptance of responsibility in the legal proceedings, with the obligation to pay compensation, will ensure that such glitches will not recur.”